'The wrong decision has been made' - Liverpool boss Arne Slot fumes over Virgil van Dijk's disallowed goal against Manchester City

Liverpool fell behind to an Erling Haaland opener after the Norwegian had earlier had his penalty saved by Giorgi Mamardashvili. The striker’s looped header lofted over the Georgian in the Reds’ net and handed the hosts a deserved lead.

Liverpool did respond to going behind, with Van Dijk appearing to level proceedings in the 38th minute. Mohamed Salah drilled across a corner towards the back of the City box and the ball was met by a thunderous header by the centre-half, which flew into the bottom right corner. The Liverpool captain wheeled away in celebration to the corner flag, believing he had equalised.

VAR would soon intervene and spoil the Liverpool fans' cheers, though. Andy Robertson, standing three yards offside, ducked under the flight of the ball, but the officials judged him to be interfering with play. It was a contentious decision, given Donnarumma had seen the direction the ball was travelling in, and Robertson was not obscuring his vision.

The Liverpool fans and Slot were justifiably a little miffed.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Slot said: “I think it's obvious and clear that the wrong decision has been made, at least in my opinion. Because he [Robertson] didn't interfere at all with what the goalkeeper could do.

“Immediately after the game someone showed me the goal that the same referee allowed City against Wolves last season [John Stones’ last minute winner]. So, it took the linesman 13 seconds to raise his flag to say it's offside. So, there was clearly communication.

“That could have influenced the game in a positive way for us because in the first half we were so poor.

“We would have been lucky going 1-0 down at half-time, let alone if it was 1-1 or 2-1 down. So it has been an influential decision, which is not to say that we then would have had a result over here because you cannot predict how the second half would have gone.”

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Regardless of the decision, Liverpool were not good enough and clearly deserved to lose the clash against their title rivals. Jeremy Doku was the standout performer for the hosts and the Reds struggled to contain the lively Belgian who put the game beyond doubt when he scored City’s third.

Earlier, Haaland and Nico Gonzalez had made it 2-0 to the hosts and prompted furious criticism of the Reds by Sky Sports’ pundits. Gary Neville claimed that Liverpool had been “asking to be beaten” by Pep Guardiola’s team and Roy Keane had labelled the Reds’ performance a “disgrace”.

City were the standout side, and their performance demonstrated why they are still one of Europe’s best sides. With Haaland in some of the best form of his career so far, it would be daft to write off City for any of the major honours.

Speaking after the game, Ruben Dias sent a warning shot towards league leaders Arsenal and claimed that his team were performing at the highest level. The defender added that “there are new faces because of the ones that left, but that quality stays the same, and we keep on pushing,” in a potential sly dig at the Reds.

Guardiola’s team have now moved within just four points of Arsenal, after the Gunners dropped two costly points late against Sunderland on Saturday. The victory also confined Liverpool to eighth spot in the Premier League, behind rivals Manchester United and eight points behind the Gunners at the top of the table.

There is a long way to go in the Premier League campaign, but Liverpool must start turning their fortunes around sooner rather than later.